UN appoints twenty eminent thinkers to shed new light on the world’s greatest challenges

Twenty prominent personalities, globally renowned for their intellectual leadership in economic and social fields, will form the second United Nations High-level Advisory Board (HLAB) on Economic and Social Affairs, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) announced today.

Over the next two years, the Board will strengthen the United Nations thought leadership on sustainable development and reinforce its impact on policies at every level – from global to local.

Comprising a diverse group of experts from around the world, the Board will closely collaborate with UN DESA to provide guidance and focused recommendations for the UN Secretary-General to respond to current and future socio-economic challenges in the post-COVID-19 world and to advance the Decade of Action for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The first United Nations High-level Advisory Board was established in June 2018 as a key element of the efforts to support UN Member States in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Over the course of the last two years, the interventions and insights of the Board greatly expanded the understanding of UN DESA of some of the most burning economic and social issues shaping our world and inspired the United Nations to break new ground in policy research. The first Board left behind a legacy in the form of a volume of essays “Recover Better: Economic and Social Challenges and Opportunities” on ways to advance the sustainable development agenda.

Members of the Second High-level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs:

Giancarlo Corsetti, Professor of Macroeconomics,University of Cambridge

Diane Coyle, Co-director of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge

Ibrahim Ahmed Elbadawi, Managing Director, Economic Research Forum, Egypt

Alex Ezeh, Dornsife Professor of Global Health, Community Health and Prevention, Drexel University and former Director of African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)

Marcel Fratzscher, President of DIW Berlin

Anastasia J. Gage, Professor at the Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University

Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Nargis Kassenova, Senior Fellow and Director of the Program on Central Asia at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University, and Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations and Regional Studies of KIMEP University (Almaty, Kazakhstan)

Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar, Honorary Chairman of the Inter-American Dialogue; former President of Chile (2000-2006)

Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), and Founder/Director of UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

José Antonio Ocampo, Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, and Chair of the Committee for Development Policy of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

Dani Rodrik, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government

Jeffrey David Sachs, Director of the Center for sustainable development at Columbia University and SDG Advocate

Elisabeth Sidiropoulos, Chief Executive, the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA)

Joseph Eugene Stiglitz, Professor, Columbia University

Heizo Takenaka, Professor Emeritus, Keio University, and Professor, Toyo University

Izabella Mônica Vieira Teixeira, former Minister of Environment (2010-2016), Brazil

Kori Udovicki, Head of the Center for Advanced Economic Studies (CEVES)

Ernesto Zedillo Ponce De Leon, Director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization; former President of Mexico(1994-2000)

Min Zhu, Chairman, National Institute of Financial Research, Tsinghua University
​
More information on the HLAB can be found athttps://www.un.org/en/desa/about-us/advisory-board